Eunice Newton Foote

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Excerpt from the Scientific American describing Eunice Foote's experiments, 1856

Eunice Newton Foote ( July 17, 1819 in Goshen , Connecticut - September 30, 1888 in Lenox , Massachusetts ) was an American inventor and researcher in the field of atmospheric chemistry , primarily in relation to the climate impact of greenhouse gases . Like her husband Elisha Foote, she campaigned for women's rights .

Life

Eunice Newton was born in Goshen, Connecticut in 1819 to Isaac Newton Jr. and Thirza Newton. She had six sisters and five brothers. She grew up in Troy , New York and attended Troy Female Seminary , now the Emma Willard School . The students were encouraged to attend lectures at a nearby science college, now the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . There she learned the basics of chemistry and acquired knowledge in experimental techniques.

In 1841 she married Elisha Foote, a lawyer who specialized in patent law and later became a judge. He was also interested in the natural sciences and did research. Both registered patents for their inventions. In addition, the couple was active in the women's rights movement. Eunice and Elisha Foote had two daughters and six grandchildren from their two daughters: Mary Foote Henderson was an artist and writer and married to the politician John B. Henderson and Augusta Foote Arnold was also a writer.

Women's rights movement

Signature page of the Declaration of Sentiments

Foote campaigned for women's rights; she was supported by her husband. In 1848 she attended the Seneca Falls Convention of Elizabeth Cady Stanton , with whom she was friends, and signed the Declaration of Sentiments . Her name is found in fifth position on the list of signatures, his signature in fourth position for the men.

research

Her work was published in the American Journal of Science and Arts in 1856

In 1856, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Albany, New York, a paper by Eunice Foote on the effects of solar radiation on gases in cylinders was presented. Since women could be members of the AASS but it was not customary for them to present their research themselves, their work was read by Joseph Henry , a physicist and one of the founders of the Smithsonian Institution . In his preliminary remark he said: "Science was of no country and of no sex. The sphere of woman embraces not only the beautiful and the useful, but the true." (German: "Science had no country and no gender. The The woman's sphere includes not only the beautiful and useful, but also the true. ”). Immediately beforehand, her husband had presented a work that he was allowed to present himself. It covered his experiments on temperature measurements with differential thermometers exposed to the sun outside or inside a room at different ambient temperatures and was published in the annual proceedings of the AASS, the collection of the presentations presented at an annual meeting. Eunice Foote's essay was not published in it. It appeared in the American Journal of Science and Arts that same year .

Eunice Foote experimentally investigated the effect of solar radiation on hermetically sealed glass tubes filled with various gases. On the basis of this experimental set-up, she demonstrated the absorption of solar thermal radiation by carbon dioxide and water vapor and recognized a possible cause for climate change events in the results . Foote summarized her findings with the words:

“An atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature; and if as some suppose, at one period of its history the air had mixed with it a larger proportion than at present, an increased temperature… must have necessarily resulted. "

“An atmosphere of this gas would give our earth a high temperature; and if, as some assume, the air had mixed with it to a greater extent than before in a certain period of its history, [...] this would inevitably have led to an increased temperature. "

- Eunice Newton Foote

Foote is considered to be the world's first researcher to recognize a direct connection between the carbon dioxide concentration in the air and the warming of the earth's atmosphere and thus to identify an important component of the greenhouse effect . This finding was attributed to the Irish scientist John Tyndall (1820-1893) until 2010 ; but this discovered the connection three years later than Foote. Presumably he wasn't familiar with Foote's work.

Appreciation

Eunice Foote's accomplishments were unknown in the history of climate change research until geologist Raymond Sorenson discovered her publications and published them in a 2010 issue of the journal Annual Scientific Discovery . He realized that Foote was the first to make a link between carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect, and that her work had previously been unappreciated. In January 2011, Sorenson published his research on Foote's work in AAPG Search and Discovery, where it received more exposure than any other of his work. Her early contribution to climatology was first recognized in 2018 at a symposium at the University of California, Santa Barbara ; Their exclusion from the history of science was also described. John Perlin called them the " Rosa Parks of Science". He wrote a book on Foote stating that Foote's contribution laid the foundations for an understanding of the greenhouse effect .

publication

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Read the eBook Newton genealogy, genealogical, biographical, historical, being a record of the descendants of Richard Newton of Sudbury and Marlborough, Massachusetts 1638, with genealogies of families descended by Ermina Newton Leonard online for free (page 110 of 131). In: ebooksread.com. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
  2. ↑ RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project: 5 New England Newton families. In: rootsweb.com. wc.rootsweb.com, accessed October 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Akshat Rathi: The female scientist who Identified the greenhouse-gas effect never got the credit. In: qz.com. Quartz, accessed October 26, 2019 .
  4. ^ A b Roland Jackson: Eunice Foote, John Tyndall and a question of priority . In: Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science . tape 0 , no. 0 , 2019, p. 20180066 , doi : 10.1098 / rsnr.2018.0066 ( royalsocietypublishing.org ).
  5. ↑ Ulrike Herrmann: the portrait: Discovered the greenhouse effect in 1856: Eunice Newton Foote . In: The daily newspaper: taz . December 13, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 2 ( taz.de [accessed December 13, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Eunice Newton Foote ( Memento from October 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer. In: climate.gov. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
  8. ^ Leila McNeill: This Lady Scientist Defined the Greenhouse Effect But Didn't Get the Credit, Because Sexism. In: smithsonianmag.com. Smithsonian, accessed October 26, 2019 .
  9. ^ Why History Forgot the Woman Who Discovered the Cause of Global Warming. In: time.com. Time, accessed October 26, 2019 .
  10. ^ Roland Jackson: Eunice Foote, John Tyndall and a Question of Priority . (PDF) In: Notes and Records (The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science) . 2019. doi : 10.1098 / rsnr.2018.0066 .
  11. ^ Raymond P. Sorenson: Eunice Foote's Pioneering Research On CO 2 And Climate Warming . In: Search and Discovery . January 2011.
  12. ↑ This woman fundamentally changed climate science - and you've probably never heard of her. Retrieved December 12, 2019 (American English).
  13. ^ Raymond P. Sorenson: "Eunice Foote's Pioneering Research On CO2 And Climate Warming" . Ed .: American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Online Journal for E&P Geologists, Tulsa, OK January 31, 2011.
  14. ↑ Time : The Woman Who Discovered the Cause of Global Warming Was Long Overlooked. Her Story Is a Reminder to Champion All Women Leading on Climate , July 17, 2019
  15. ↑ More than a Historical Foote Note. Retrieved December 12, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Newton Foote, Eunice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Foote, Eunice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American researcher and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH Goshen , Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1888
Place of death Lenox , Massachusetts